Lunar Eclipse Coming Saturday Night

[Guest guest]

Lunar Eclipse Coming Saturday Night

Totality at 8:06 p.m. EST; Best Viewing in Eastern U.S.

By RICK CALLAHAN, AP

 

 

(Nov. 7) -- Stargazers across North America will watch the full moon dim into

a dark, ruddy orb Saturday night as the moon drifts through Earth's shadow in

the latest celestial event this year to pull eyes skyward.

 

Astronomers who scrutinized Mars this summer during its closest approach to

Earth in 60,000 years were more recently awed by red and green aurora displays

as far south as Florida thanks to big explosions on the sun.

 

 

 

 

 

Lunar Eclipse

 

 

 

 

And now more heavenly happenings are on the way.

 

Saturday's lunar eclipse will be followed by the Leonid meteor shower, a

total solar eclipse over the southern hemisphere - and a chance for more auroras

if the sun stays active. Another eruption Tuesday on the sun may rank among the

most intense solar events ever recorded. But the explosion was aimed away

from Earth, meaning it would have little impact here.

 

Still, the otherworldly event the public has the best chance of seeing is

Saturday's total eclipse of the moon. At its peak, the moon will hang eerily in

the night sky like a dark, reddish-orange coal.

 

Unlike unpredictable comets and meteors, the moon is a reliable show, said

Stephen Maran, a spokesman for the American Astronomical Society.

 

''Nowadays people who've grown up in the city or suburbs have never seen the

Milky Way, but even in the most light-polluted place I've ever been - downtown

Los Angeles - you can see the moon,'' he said.

 

Weather cooperating, people in the eastern United States will witness the

entire eclipse; it will already be under way when the moon rises around sunset

in

the West.

 

The eclipse reaches totality at 8:06 p.m. EST. That stage - when the moon,

Earth and sun are lined up precisely and the moon passes through the darkest

part of Earth's shadow - lasts just 24 minutes.

 

The eclipse can also be seen in South America, Europe and Africa. The last

eclipse of the moon visible from North America was on May 15, but much of the

United States was cloudy.

 

Unlike eclipses of the sun, which can damage viewers' unprotected eyes, lunar

eclipses are safe to watch with the naked eye or binoculars.

 

Total lunar eclipses come in many colors, from dark brown and red to bright

orange, yellow and even gray, depending on how much dust and clouds are in the

Earth's atmosphere at that time, Maran said.

 

In ancient times, the phenomenon was believed caused by some unseen monster

bloodying the moon, an omen of disaster.

 

If clouds blot out Saturday's event, disappointed viewers won't have to wait

long before the annual Leonid meteor shower arrives.

 

For North American viewers, the shooting star display peaks Nov. 19 with 100

or so meteors per hour, some of them fireballs, said Stuart Levy of the

Champaign-Urbana Astronomical Society in central Illinois.

 

Levy's views of spectacular Leonid showers during the past few years were

ruined by clouds, but he'll be trying again this month.

 

''I've missed the best, when people were seeing hundreds of meteors an hour.

If I see 100 an hour this time around I'll be happy. It might be a really good

show, with luck,'' he said.

 

Nov. 28 also will bring a total solar eclipse, although seeing it will

require a bit of travel. It will be visible only in Antarctica.

 

 

11-07-03 0942EST

 

Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.

[Guest guest]

> Nov. 28 also will bring a total solar eclipse, although seeing it will

> require a bit of travel. It will be visible only in Antarctica.

 

Think this should be Nov. 23, time of new moon, as Amma finishes Devi Bhava

in Detroit.

p.